A common stability problem that occurs when rendering graphics occurs when the system appears frozen or hung while processing an end-user command or operation. Users may wait for a few seconds, determine that the system is frozen, and then perform a hard reboot of the system by pressing and holding the power button. In many cases the system appears to be frozen because the graphics processing unit (GPU) is busy processing intensive graphical operations such as during video gameplay. When the GPU is busy in this way, the effect may be that the screen is not updated, thus appearing to the user that the system is frozen.
Some systems may implement a timeout detection and recovery (TDR) process. Mechanisms such as a TDR may be used in any environment in which a GPU is used and can be subject to an intensive operation and a timeout mechanism is useful to determine whether to restart the GPU.